


Spots Off, Claws In

by SoulStealer1987



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fluff and Angst, Gen, HAPPY BIRTHDAY ROGUEO!!!, Hurt/Comfort, Identity Reveal, This Oneshot Is A Birthday Present For My Friend Rogue
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-03
Updated: 2018-10-03
Packaged: 2019-07-24 20:13:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,724
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16182359
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SoulStealer1987/pseuds/SoulStealer1987
Summary: Something the villain said sticks with Ladybug after the akuma is purified.





	Spots Off, Claws In

**Author's Note:**

> This is a birthday present for my friend Rogue irl, who unfortunately doesn't have an AO3 account at the moment. HAPPY BIRTHDAY FRIENDO!!! But yeah, I promised I'd write her a oneshot for her birthday, and as I've watched a grand total of three episodes of My Hero Academia I went with the next best thing: a reveal fic!
> 
> (Now, if only we could actually get something like this in canon...)
> 
> Anyway! Hello, Miraculous fandom! *waves* I haven't written much of anything here, but who knows? That might just change in the future~! Or if I wind up with more friends' birthdays that I need to write Miraculous fics for. We'll see.

The akuma is purified, the city saved once again—but for whatever reason, this villain’s words stick with Ladybug more than most.  
  
You might as well just give up! Hawk Moth’s got all the time in the world, and you two have to succeed every time. He only has to win once.  
  
He... only has to win once.  
  
“Bye-bye little butterfly,” Ladybug whispers, but her heart’s not in it this time. She watches it go, and is dimly aware of Chat Noir reassuring the very, very confused, formerly akumatized girl. Probably a tourist, if her halting French and heavy accent were any indication.  
  
That does beg the question, of course, how Hawk Moth could communicate effectively with someone whose French sounded straight off Google Translate. On a better day, Ladybug would take note of that, and later on Marinette Dupain-Cheng would pay Master Fu a visit with this new information on their adversary. But this isn’t a better day.  
  
Her earrings flash a warning. Three minutes left. If she hurries, she can make it home without having to shift back midway. Even as she’s well aware of that, she doesn’t move. Lézard was right, even if her French was horrible. Hawk Moth does only need to win once, and it’ll all be over for them, for everyone.  
  
He only has to win once. Ladybug only has to fail once. They only have to lose once, and then it’s all over. Her heart begins to pound again, because she can’t lose. They can’t lose.  
  
But what if I do?  
  
“M’lady?”  
  
Chat Noir’s voice tears her from her thoughts, and she’s suddenly aware of his hand on her shoulder.  
  
“You’re shaking,” he says, quietly. Ladybug meets his gaze, but can’t hold it for long. She can’t do this, not now. “Are you going to be okay to shift back?”  
  
It takes a moment for the question to fully register, and her earrings blink again. Two minutes.  
  
“Yeah,” Ladybug says faintly. “I just...”  
  
“The akuma?” He guesses. She nods.  
  
“I just...” Ladybug takes a deep breath, and exhales slowly. “Do you have anything you need to do after this?”  
  
Chat Noir hesitates ever so briefly when he says, “No.” On any other day, Ladybug would have easily caught his lie, and he knows it. It’s with this in mind that his gaze hardens, and he continues, “Not if you need me, m’lady.”  
  
“I-“  
  
Ladybug’s earrings blink again, and she freezes for a different reason. Her instincts kick in. “Meet me on the rooftops in ten minutes. You know the place.”  
  
Chat nods, but she’s already gone. Ladybug zips away, around the corner into a secluded alleyway, and then her spots are off and she’s Marinette again. Just Marinette Dupain-Cheng, someone who could never hope to do anything against Hawk Moth without her powers.  
  
“Marinette?”  
  
Tikki’s floating in front of her, concerned written all over the kwami’s features. Marinette sinks into a crouch against the wall, tucks her knees up against her chest, and desperately tries not to begin sobbing.  
  
“Oh, Tikki, I... I-I..."  
  
“Take a deep breath,” Tikki advises solemnly. Marinette quickly obliges. “And then let it out.”  
  
Marinette again does so, and while it doesn’t help much, it at least helps some. Enough that she can get her words out.  
  
“What if I fail?” Marinette whispers.  
  
“What?”  
  
“What if I fail? What if Hawk Moth wins? We have to win time, after time, after time... but he only has to win once and it’s over. What if—“  
  
“Marinette,” Tikki cuts in, “you aren’t going to fail.”  
  
“But what if I do?”  
  
“Then—“ Tikki frowns, and thinks on this. For a moment, it looks like she has an idea, but whatever it is gets quickly dismissed. This repeats several times over, and each time Marinette dares to hope Tikki has an idea, and each time she’s disappointed.  
  
“You need to talk to Chat Noir,” Tikki says at last. “If the worst happens, and the Miraculouses of the Ladybug and the Black Cat were taken, you need to get them back before it’s too late.”  
  
“How?”  
  
Tikki frowns, but there’s a determined glint in her eyes. “Without the Miraculouses, you have no way of telling who Chat Noir is, do you?”  
  
“No,” Marinette says miserably.  
  
“Then we need to fix that. If the worst happens, you need your partner. You need Chat Noir.”  
  
“So you’re telling me I need to know his identity?”  
  
“I didn’t say that,” Tikki says. “If that proves to be the best way, then yes. Just... Marinette? Please be careful.”  
  
She dives into Marinette’s bag, and returns holding a cookie. She eats it in a single gulp—definitely not something she’s used to Tikki doing, typically she takes her time—and then offers Marinette a reassuring smile.  
  
“You’ve got a kitty to meet up with, don’t you?”  
  
“Yeah,” Marinette says. “Tikki... thank you. SPOTS ON!”  
  
With that, she’s Ladybug again, and she takes a moment to catch her breath before zipping off into the night. When she makes it to the rooftop, Chat Noir’s already waiting for her.  
  
“M’lady, are you—“  
  
“I'm fine, now,” Ladybug says, quietly. "I just... what happens if I fail?"  
  
“I won’t let that happen,” he promises. It's appreciated, but even so Ladybug shakes her head.  
  
“What happens if we fail?”  
  
“M’lady?”  
  
“What happens if we fail, and Hawk Moth gets our Miraculouses?”  
  
“We’ll get them back before he can do anything?”  
  
“That’s the thing,” she says miserably. “You have no way of knowing who I am outside the mask, and I have no way of knowing who you are. I was... talking with my kwami.”  
  
“And?”  
  
“And she agrees that if the worst happens, we need to be working together even more than before.”  
  
She looks at Chat meaningfully. It doesn’t take him long to get it.  
  
“With all due respect, m’lady, I think I’d know you anywhere.”  
  
Ladybug cracks a wry smile. “No, you wouldn’t,” she says. “I’m not the same outside the mask. I’m... awkward, and I'm clumsy, and I have a crush on a boy that he’ll probably never even know about, because I’m too awkward to even try to tell him and if I did, my clumsiness would mess it all up.”  
  
“Well,” her partner says quietly, “I’m not the same outside the mask, either. You definitely wouldn’t know me. I can never really be myself when I’m not... you know. Chat Noir.”  
  
“Tikki suggested that maybe...?” She trails off, hoping he gets it. He does, but she’s definitely not expecting a nod.  
  
“Assuming it was just the two of us that knew, and no one else? It wouldn’t be too much of a _cat_ -astrophe, would it, Bugaboo?”  
  
Ladybug sighs.  
  
“What? Are my puns _bug_ -ging you, m’lady?”  
  
“Look,” she says, “out here we’re too exposed. We can’t risk Hawk Moth finding out who we are.”  
  
“Right as always,” he says. “What do you have in mind?”  
  
Ladybug thinks on this briefly, then leans in and whispers something into Chat Noir’s ear—the human one, not the... never mind.  
  
He takes a step back, and nods briefly.  
  
“Today at five,” Ladybug says. Chat Noir nods again.  
  
“Today at five,” he repeats. “How will I know it’s you?”  
  
“I’ll be wearing a red shirt.”  
  
Ladybug silently makes a mental note to dig the red shirt she got from Grandma a few years back out of her closet. She sincerely hopes it still fits, it’s... been a while. But if it doesn’t, that’s fine. She’s got a couple of hours to work with.  
  
“Got it,” Chat Noir says. “I’ll be wearing a black one. Hope to see you soon, m’lady.”  
  
Ladybug watches him go, then zips back home and whispers, “Spots off,” because Marinette Dupain-Cheng’s got work to do.  
  
Two hours later, Marinette slips downstairs in a hastily-resized red t-shirt and the rest of her usual outfit. Her parents are hard at work in the bakery as usual, and she knows she can’t sneak past them, so she doesn’t.  
  
“Hi Mom, Dad,” Marinette says cheerfully. Her dad nods without looking over, but her mom takes one look at her and grins knowingly. Oh boy.  
  
“Going somewhere, Marinette?” Sabine Cheng asks innocently. Marinette takes a seat on the bench near the door, and shakes her head.  
  
“No,” Marinette says, then frowns. “At least I don’t think so.” She and Chat Noir... hadn’t really planned what would happen after, but they probably would have to leave, wouldn’t they? Otherwise her parents would listen in, and that... no. That can't happen.  
  
“Well, maybe,” Marinette admits after a long moment. “I’m waiting for someone.”  
  
Her father drops his rolling pin, and hastily scrambles to pick it back up. Her mom's grin, meanwhile, only grows.  
  
“Ooooh, a boy?”  
  
“Well, yes, but—“ Marinette sighs. “Not in that way, Mom! We’re just friends.”  
  
“Is it who I think it is?”  
  
“No,” Marinette says, because she’s reasonably certain of who her mom suspects is coming by and somehow, she doubts that he’s Chat Noir. The bell rings within seconds, and Marinette glances up to see, incidentally, the exact person she was thinking of. Adrien Agreste offers her a smile, and takes a seat next to her on the bench.  
  
“Hey, Marinette,” he says.  
  
“Um,” she says in return. Her parents exchange knowing looks, and busy themselves with looking far less interested than they actually are.  
  
“H-hi Adrien,” Marinette says, somehow managing to get through that sentence without stuttering too much. “What are you doing here?”  
  
“Waiting for a friend,” Adrien says. “I would ask you the same, but...”  
  
“I live here.”  
  
Adrien shrugs, and says, “Yeah.”  
  
“I’m actually... waiting for someone too,” Marinette admits. She glances over at Adrien, hoping to gauge his reaction, only for his eyes to meet hers. Her gaze travels down then, to his shirt. It’s black.

 _IT'S BLACK._  
  
“Wait— _Marinette!?_ _”_ Adrien blurts, having apparently figured it out around the time she did. Marinette’s jaw drops.  
  
_“ADRIEN???”_  
  
Across the kitchen, Marinette’s parents look at each other and shrug helplessly.  
  
“Did we do that?” Sabine asks. Tom Dupain shakes his head.

"Screaming each other's names, no," he says. "But some other things..." He chuckles to himself.

"We'd better give them some privacy," Sabine concludes. When it finally occurs to Marinette to glance over in her parents' direction, they're both long gone.


End file.
